Week 16: My Lawyer Made Me Change the Name of this Post so I Wouldn't Get Sued

I had a different title, but when I tried to format some text during the post, my original title got deleted and I couldn't remember what it was.  It wasn't anything clever, but I couldn't think of anything better, and decided to go with this title.

In a week that could have been dramatic and nail-biting, we got boring chalk, which is actually the norm for the championship game.  The last time the championship wasn't the 1 vs 2 was 2018, and the last time before that was 2013. I guess that means usually the best teams make the finals, and that it takes a special run to break that mold.  I'm sure that wouldn't be the case if we expanded the playoffs to 8 teams, but I like our current setup.  It makes the regular season mean more and gives you a big boost for being a top team in the league and earning a bye.

Game Recaps

Skyler (2) vs Brady (3): What started out as an interesting game Thursday night (Deebo playing well, but Brady's players vulturing TD's), turned into a blowout Sunday morning and afternoon.  Brady had 2 Sunday night players combine for nearly 50 points, but at that point it was too little too late to make a meaningful difference in the game. Deebo kicked things off for Skyler by hitting the 20+ point threshold, and then received reinforcements from the Bucs DST (20) and Adams (33.4).  The heaviest hitters for Skyler this week were the waiver wire acquisitions of Justin Jackson (34.2) and Joe Burrow (46.1). Jackson had roughly 40 points on the season before this game, and while Joe Burrow didn't receive nearly half of his season points in one game, he set his season-high total (and his career-high total as well) by nearly 50%. 

Outside of Dak Prescott (39.3), Brady did not have anyone score over 20 points, and only 4 of his other 8 players hit double digits. This loss ends Brady's chance of 3 championships in 4 years (would have been a record), and of a repeat championship, but this season is proof that Brady's recent success wasn't a flash in the pan, and that he has turned the page on his early career failures.  He will look to build on this momentum next year as he battles Rob for "Most Dominant Team of the Last Half Decade".  Right now I give Brady a narrow edge as they each have 2 championships, but Brady has an additional championship appearance and semi-final appearance. If either of them wins a 3rd title next year, they automatically become a dynasty in my mind.

Tyler (1) vs Tommy (5): The game started out well for Tyler with Rodgers getting 25, but Tommy kept sticking around, even when it looked like Tyler would pull away.  Tyler got nervous there for a while, especially with Tyreek not playing well, but Mahomes eventually got pulled, and the Jets DST came back down to earth. Cooper Kupp (21.3) and M.Andrews (26.5) kept Tyler within striking distance (6 points behind), and then the Cowboys DST brought the game home by putting up a season-high 27 points.  Season-high makes it sound like they haven't done as well this year, but they had a 26 point game back in week 10, and a 25 point game two weeks ago.

The Jets kept their base points for a while, and may have inflated Tommy's projection, but they eventually settled at a respectable (for a DST) 10 points.  Mahomes was Tommy's only player to score 20+ (28.32 to be exact).  Unfortunately, Tommy was a victim of Mahomes own success as the Chiefs blew out the Steelers, and Mahomes came out early.  Tommy had 5 total players score between 10-19.98, but he didn't have anyone else put up a big game to combat Tyler's big game players.

Award Season (Playoff Matchup Only)

MVP: The Cowboys got Tyler the win in a primetime game.

LVP: No one player would have got Brady or Tommy the win, so this award is hard this week. We will give it to Chuba Hubbard for scoring less than one point while being the 'lead' back for Carolina.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Skyler

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Tommy

There are no real lucky or unlucky teams this week as the top two scoring teams won.  Skyler is the closest thing to lucky as his two waiver wire pickups combined for 80.3 points, but he still would have won without those players. Brady was unlucky to lose Fournette, but Rojo had a 16 point game for Brady in his absence.  Tyler was unlucky to have a tired/limited Tyreek, but he still won anyway.

Playoff Update

Tommy finishes his best season with a loss, and Brady takes a narrow lead over Rob for 'team of the half decade', though next year could still decide it. Before this week, Skyler, Chad, Brady, and Rob were the only teams to appear in 3 championship games. Tyler has now joined the group, for his first appearance since his 2013 title run. Skyler and Brady were playing for the record 4th appearance with Skyler being victorious and making his first appearance since his 2015 title run.  Tyler is looking to join Skyler, Rob, and Brady in the 2x Championship club, while Skyler is looking to move up to 4x Championship.  Whoever wins this year will set the 'record' drought for the longest time between championships. Right now Skyler holds this record at 3 (won in 2011, and then not again until 2014). The real record is the shortest time between first and second, and Brady and Rob are both tied at 2 years (aka they won their first, didn't win it the next year, but won it the year after).  If Tyler wins, the record will go up to 8 (2013 to 2021), and if Skyler wins, the record will go up to 6 (2015 to 2021). I don't want to speak for Tyler, but if the Utes win the Rose Bowl and he wins the Championship all on the same weekend, that's got to be in the top 5 for the greatest weekends of his life. When asked for a comment about his all-time great weekends, Tyler put on a hoodie and mumble grunted "We're on to Dixie".

Game Previews

There are no Thursday night games this week

Tyler (1) vs Skyler (2): Tyler has 1 player in primetime, while Skyler has 2 players in primetime. In their lone matchup this year, Tyler thrashed Skyler 169 to 102. If we look at all of their games this year and put them head to head, Tyler leads 9-7.  All-time, Skyler leads their series 8-4, though the last 8 years they are even at 4-4. They have only matched up one other time in the playoffs, in the semifinals of the inaugural 2010 season. Speaking of the greatest weekends of Tyler's life, the one time they played in the playoffs, Tyler was on his honeymoon on a cruise ship. Tyler only trusted one man to handle his team while he was away, and that man was Skyler.  So in a way, Skyler won the last time they played in the playoffs, but Tyler's team is officially 1-0 in playoff matchups between these two teams.

The official projections have Tyler winning by fewer than 2 points.

FantasyPros gives weekly Power Rankings, with the top score being 100. Below are the rankings for the league for week 17.

FantasyPros also does weekly projections.  They also have Tyler winning by fewer than 2 points.

Our league history paints a slightly different picture, with the underdog winning the fantasy championship a majority of the time. Underdogs (by seeding, not by projections) are 9-2 in the championship, which should give Skyler some hope.

So it should be a good, close, and intense matchup, with the championship likely riding on how much Aaron Rodgers spreads the ball or focuses on Davante Adams on Sunday night.  Good luck to everyone in the consolation bracket, and to anyone else not named Tyler.

Week 15: Playoffs? You Want to Talk About Playoffs? Playoffs?

This was the first week of the playoffs, but don't tell the teams who were playing this week as they averaged 92.22 points. It was an ugly week, but hey, at least they made it to the playoffs, and two of them survived this ugly week. Quick fun fact, had we kept our original playoff seeding/formatting, Brady would have beat Chad, and Tommy would have upset Rob -- so the same two teams would have won, but they would have been on opposite sides of the bracket. At least the games were interesting -- you can't have a big blowout if no one scores a lot of points.

Game Recaps

Chad (4) vs Tommy (5): After losing by 0.08 in week 14, Tommy turned around a week later and got the upset by beating Chad by 13 points. Thanks to the wacky covid schedule Tommy was up 75-0 before the Sunday afternoon games started.  It helped the Mahomes had an amazing 4th quarter on Spider-Man: No Way Home day (or so I've been told). Chad tried to stage a comeback, but it ended up being too little, too late. This game was essentially a QB duel as Mahomes had 35+ points and Hurts had 29+ points, and the next highest scorer was the Vikings DST at 15 points. 

Brady (3) vs Rob (6): There was a little bit of back and forth this game -- until late Sunday night that is. Both teams had key players playing on Thursday, with Rob coming out with a lead, but maybe not as much confidence after the game Keenan Allen had instead of Mike Williams. James Robinson finally showed up for Rob, but then the Cowboys helped Brady battle back.  Kittle put Brady into a suplex, but Tom Brady bailed Brady out by scoring <5 for Rob while Lucky Lenny put up 13 for Brady before getting hurt. It was a 2 point game going into Tuesday evening when Goedert came to play (the only 20+ scorer this matchup), while Van Jefferson never got out of first gear and sputtered to a 5 point game.  It would have been a great storyline if these two had met in the championship and they were playing to be crowned the dynasty of the last half-decade, but we were robbed of that matchup.

Awards Season (Playoff Matchups Only)

MVP: I'll give it to Goedert for being the highest-scoring player in the game that started out close before Goedert put it on ice. Mahomes is the runner-up for being the best player in the playoffs this week.

LVP: Football in general wins this award.  It was a low-scoring week overall in real football.  Also, I would like to add BYU to this list, premier league reffing, and Tennessee Titan's turnovers -- I wish that last one was a pastry. Anyway, enough personal stuff.

There was no lucky or unlucky this week since the two highest-scoring teams in the playoffs won, and they would have won under the old system as well. Maybe we could argue the winning teams got lucky to win with such a bad week, but it feels wrong.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Tommy barely beats Brady, and is the lowest scorer this season to make the high mark.

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: This goes to Rob, aka team poop.  Rob changed his team name and logo, so you can't blame me for calling him team poop. Below is proof

Regular Season Update (should have done this last week)

Tyler finished with double digit wins.  It has happened a total of 13 times in league history, so averaging about once per year, but we have had several years where no one breaks it.  If we were on last year's schedule this would have been another year it didn't occur. This is Tyler's first time breaking double digits,  the first time he has finished the season in first place, and the first time he has earned a bye week.

Skyler finished as the highest scoring team on the season by less than 1 point ahead of Tyler, which I will assume us the closest race in league history -- it's too hard to go back and check.  This is Skyler's 3rd time finishing as the highest scorer. He was tied in second place for most 'highest scoring seasons' at two with Ren and Chad, but now he moves into 2nd all by himself. Rob currently holds the record at 4 time season points leader

Skyler, Rob, and Tyler each won their division.  This is Skyler's 7th division title, which is most in the league. Tied in second for most division titles is Rob, who won his 5th this year (now tied with Jordan).  Tyler won his 3rd division title this year, which is tied for 4th (no one is really in 3rd since Rob and Jordan are in 2nd and 3rd) with Chad, Ren, and Kyle. Ren still holds the record with 3 straight division titles. Skyler, Chad, Rob, Jordan, and Kyle have all won 2 straight at various points in history.

Playoff Update

Before the start of the games, the North Division represented 67% of the playoff teams. After this round of games, the North now represents 75% of the playoffs.  If Tommy wins, that would give the North 100% representation (as Skyler vs Brady means someone from the North makes it from their side) and would be the first intra-division championship in league history.

Tyler is making his 4th semi-final appearance, and has made the semi-finals in back-to-back years. He is playing for his 3rd championship appearance (which would tie him with the current record of championship appearances, though that record will be broken this year) -- his last one being when he won it all in 2013.

Tommy is making his 1st semi-final appearance. He is playing for his 1st championship appearance.

Brady is making his 4th semi-final appearance in 5 years (and also 4th semi-final total). He went back to back in 2017-2018 and is going back to back again in 2020-2021. He is playing for his 4th championship appearance (which would set a new league record) -- his last appearance being when he won it all last year

Skyler is making his 8th semi-final appearance -- his first appearance since 2018. He is playing for his 4th championship appearance (which would set a new league record) -- his last appearance being when he won it all in 2015.

Based on the history of the teams still in play, I imagine Tommy is who all of the eliminated people are cheering for.

Game Previews

Tyler (1) vs Tommy (5): Tyler has 0 players on Thursday, 1 player on Saturday, and 1 player in primetime. Tommy has 0 player on Thursdays, 2 players on Saturday, and 2 players in primetime. In their one head to head game this year, Tyler beat Tommy by 60 points. On the season, Tyler outscored Tommy by about 260 points. If we took their score each week and put them head to head, Tyler would have a record of 10-5 (including the bye week) -- it was 5-5 through week 10, but Tyler's team caught fire 5 weeks ago -- roughly the same time Tommy's house also caught fire.  I might catch fire in hell for joking about Tommy's house.  Do we have any proof that Tyler's team aren't arsonists and caught Tommy's neighbor's house on fire? This feels like it needs an investigation and suspension. This is Tyler and Tommy's first playoff matchup.

Skyler (2) vs Brady (3): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday, 1 player on Saturday, and 2 players in primetime.  Brady has 2 players on Thursday, 1 player on Saturday, and 2 players in primetime. In their two head to head games this season, they split the matchups 1-1. On the season, Skyler outscored Brady by about 130 points. If we took their score each week and put them head to head, Skyler would have a record of 10-5 (including the bye week). They have gone 3-3 the last 6 games, including when Brady won their head to head game two weeks ago. This is their second playoff matchup.  Their previous playoff matchup, Brady beat Skyler in the semi-finals (Skyler's last semi-final appearance) by 16 on his way to winning his first championship.

That is all for this week -- bad luck to Brady in fantasy football, but Merry Christmas, you filthy animals.

Week 14: The Dirty Half Dozen

After 14 long weeks, we finally have our last 6 players and know the seeding order.  We've had a good idea who would be the final 6 since week 12, but it's good to have everything finalized. Before we move on to the meat of the article, let's pour one out for our last fallen homie -- Matt Lundin.  Your team died so Rob could fly -- thanks a lot you big jerk.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Brady: This game wasn't supposed to be close after the Sunday afternoon game, but Davante Adams nearly pulled the miracle.  Lack of miracle aside, Skyler had good games from Davante and Kamara, while Brady was able to get his narrow 1.96 point victory thanks to a team effort -- he only had one player (Fournette) score over 20 points this week. His DST was his only player to score single digits. This game resulted in Tyler moving up to the 1 seed, Skyler dropping to the 2 seed, and Brady locking up the 3 seed.

Kyle vs TJ: In a game that didn't affect the playoff race, TJ got a solid win with his DST putting up 28 points. Kyle had a herculean effort from Josh Allen (39+) and a good game from Renfrow (28+), but no one else on his team broke double digits. This ended up being the battle of ineptitude.

Tyler vs Jordan: This game only mattered for Tyler from a seeding perspective -- and pride.  He needed a win and a Skyler loss to finish the season with the best record. He put up a ridiculous 189.54 and reminded the rest of the league that even after back-to-back losses, he is the #1 team to watch out for in the playoffs. I don't usually reference the write-up that the site automatically does, but let me quote the headline of the recap: "Hukraine Throat-Punches P- Town". In case you think that's hyperbole, Tyler doubled Jordan's score and nearly beat him by 100. This throat punch included brass knuckles made up of Aaron Rodgers (37.64), Cooper Kupp (31.30), Mark Andrews (28.5), and the Cowboys DST (25). Jordan's lone attempt to swat away this throat punch was feebly put up by Justin Jefferson (20.50). Sadly, this blowout wasn't even the biggest blowout of the week.

Trevor vs Matt: The biggest blowout of the week was Matt slapping Trevor around with a margin of victory of 111.44 points (aka more points than the 3 lowest scoring teams).  Whether or not the good doctor threw the game or was simply tired after a long shift and quit caring because he was eliminated a while ago was up for some debate earlier in the week, but Matt's high score rendered anything Trevor could have tried as futile. Matt had 4 people score 20+ (Stafford, Chase, Godwin, and the Titans DST) and also had Cook who scored 30+. No one on Trevor's team scored over 19. Try as he might, his blowout win wasn't enough to make the playoffs.

Brandon vs Rob: Matt had no shot to make the playoffs thanks to Rob being the highest scorer of the week against Brandon.  This game was the weekly bonanza -- and it was one of the rare 300 points combined games. Brady, Kittle, Harris, Lockett, and Javonte all showed up in a big way to get Rob this win. Herbert and Jones showed up for Brandon, but the rest of the evening news team didn't show up -- which is probably for the best as one of them may have been killed by a trident. This win solidified the 6 seed for Rob -- which is a seeding he 100% deserves given his record, though no one wants to play him after his showing this week.

Tommy vs Chad: It wasn't a given that Brady would win before this game went final, but they both knew that if Brady won, this game was worthless and they would play each other in the first round of the playoffs next week. This was the nail-biter of the week, but unfortunately for Tommy, he was not able to complete the comeback -- he lost by 2 passing yards (aka 0.08 points).  Tommy was only in this game thanks to a 33+ point effort by James Conner on Monday Night -- but even that result with Mahomes putting up 20+ as well wasn't enough to overtake the 20+ points scored by DangeRuss Wilson and Mike Evans.

Award Season

MVP: Given the lack of stakes this week, this was a tough award to give out. I'll give this weeks award to Mr. Unlimited for his best week since week 4, and helping Chad win by less than a point.

LVP: Antonio Gibson got pulled for fumbling, and his replacement got a TD.  This meant that Skyler lost and Brady won, which put them on the Rob side of the bracket, which made both of them mad.  Thanks Riverboat Ron for pissing off two teams in the league.

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ was the 9th highest scorer (aka could only beat 3 teams), but he managed to get a win this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Matt's two yard loss to Rob back in week 12 means he missed the playoffs. Brady won when he didn't want to -- so he can win this award, even though he probably doesn't want it either. I'm sure he won't end up regretting the regular season win.

Highest Scorer of the Week: As previously mentioned, Rob went off, but still only won this award by 4.

Lowest Scorer of the Week: Trevor took this award by a 10 point margin, and was one of 3 teams to score under 100 this week.

Playoff Update

As was previously discussed in text messages during the game day, Tyler got the 1 seed, and will face the winner of 4 seed Chad and 5 seed Tommy, while Skyler got the 2 seed, and will face the winner of 3 seed Brady and 6 seed Rob.  One side has 7 championships, the other has 1, but the side with the 7 championships has 25 wins this season, while the side with 1 championship has 27 wins this season.

Game Previews

Schedules got weird this week with Covid, so this will look a little odd. 

Chad (4) vs Tommy (5): Chad has 0 players on Spider-Man: No Way Home release day, 0 players on Saturday, 2 players Sunday night, 2 players on Monday night, and 2 players on Tuesday afternoon. Tommy has 1 players on Spider-Man: No Way Home release day, 0 players on Saturday, 0 players Sunday night, 1 player on Monday night, and 1 player on Tuesday afternoon. They split their actual games 1-1, but if we look at all 14 games and compare, we see that Chad has the 8-6 lead, and their total score over the season was separated by fewer than 60 points (in favor of Chad).

Brady (3) vs Rob (6): Brady has 1 player on Spider-Man: No Way Home release day, 1 player on Saturday, 1 players Sunday night, 0 players on Monday night, and 1 player on Tuesday afternoon. Rob has 2 players on Spider-Man: No Way Home release day, 0 players on Saturday, 1 players Sunday night, 0 players on Monday night, and 1 player on Tuesday afternoon. Brady when their actual game in week 10, but if we look at all 14 games and compare, we see that Rob has the 8-6 lead, and their total score over the season was separated by 130 points (in favor of Rob).

Good luck to none of you -- this is the playoffs.

Week 13: Massacre Week

Before this week, only Kyle was eliminated from the playoffs. After Brady, Rob, and Matt all won, Brandon, Trevor, Jordan, and TJ all joined him. A moment of music for our fallen tributes. I was trying to find the right clip to share, and Jocelyn and my mother-in-law were trying to figure out what I was playing.  I told them what it was, why I was doing it, and how I wished I was good at photoshop so I could put up the eliminated people's pictures.  My mother-in-law law was concerned I was being too rude.  I think it's best I not inform her of the type of smack talk we have.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Chad: This game was decided before the Sunday evening game even started. Chad said it best when he said 'Waiver wire rb just killing it for Skyler. Love it'.  When the guy your opponent picks up at midnight the night before goes off for almost 20 points, you know it's going to be a long day. Skyler only had 2 people score 20+ points (Gibson and Diontae), and one of them went for 30+ (Diontae). Chad also had two 20+ point scorers (Wilson and Montgomery), but 6 other players scored single digits, while Skyler only had 2 such players.

TJ vs Tyler: Stop me if you've heard this before, but TJ had...wait, I'm getting a note from my producers that TJ performed one of the greatest Monday Night Miracles of all time. TJ was down big, and had Damien Harris to go while Tyler still had Mike Jones...who?...Mike Jones...who? Michael McCorkle Jones ended up with more passing completions (2) than he did rush yards (-3). Unfortunately for Tyler, TJ had Damien Harris, who ran for a season-high 111 yards in addition to a TD.  It was enough to give him the win by 2.04 yards.  Those players had help though, as TJ had Kirk Cousins go for 20+, while Tyler had Cooper Kupp and Josh Jacobs eclipse the 20+ point plateau. Tyler's Monday Nightmare moves him from the 1 seed to the 2, but more on that later. This was the nail-biter of the night, as well as of the week.  It was the battle of ineptitude, but it was by far the best battle of ineptitude I've had the joy of witnessing.

Kyle vs Jordan: Jordan needed a win to stay alive, in addition to a Brady loss, but Kyle had other ideas. Had it not been for the TJ/Tyler matchup, this would have been the weekly and nightly nail-biter. Jordan put up 119.62, but over 70 of that came from Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson combined, and he had only 1 other person who scored double digits. Kyle was able to get the win from 3 players scoring 20+ points (Mattison, Moore, Colts DST), 3 more players scoring double digits, and only 3 in the single digits.

Matt vs Brandon: Matt needed a win to either retake the division lead, or at least keep pace with Rob, and Brandon needed a win just to stay alive in the playoff hunt. Brandon had Michel score 20+ and Herbert score 30+, but their combined 52 points weren't enough as Brandon topped out at 88 points. Matt was able to get a win in the second-biggest blowout of the week by getting 30+ from Stafford and Godwin, while only 2 players on his roster scored in the single digits.

Tommy vs Brady: After this matchup Brady's win streak is not 5, not 6, not 7... he has hit 8 wins and is now tied for the 2nd best record in the league.  Let this be a lesson to all of you out there to not give up after starting 0-5. Brady's win streak continued thanks to a trio of 20+ point talents -- Fournette, Allen, and Goedert.  Even though Tommy didn't have anyone hit 20+ points, 7 of his 9 players were in double digits.  He has to hope he can hit that kind of floor going forward, but can get a little more ceiling play from just one or two others.

Trevor vs Rob: Trevor needed to win to stay alive in the playoffs.  What he got instead was the wrong end of the beatdown of the week.  At this point Trevor knows his opponent is going to have a great week, but I'm sure it still hurts. In this beatdown, Trevor had two players score 20+ points (Taylor and Higgins), while Rob laid the wood with three players who scored 20+ (Javonte Williams) including two who went for 30+ (Kittle and Brady). Rob had 2 players score in the single digits while also being the high scorer of the week (187).  If this is the team we are going to see in the playoffs, we are all in big trouble. This also ended up being the weekly bonanza -- mostly thank to Rob's huge week, but Trevor had a solid score that help contribute.

Award Season

MVP: Damien Harris did just enough to get TJ the win in a tight game with no room for error.

LVP: It would be easy to give this to McCorkle, but he played well in his game plan, so I'm hesitant to actually give it to him.  Instead, I will pick Tyreek Hill who had a season low game.

Luckiest Team of the Week: TJ won despite being the 8th highest scorer, and won with his opponents QB getting less than half a point, so he wins this week.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: TJ did everything in his power to not be eliminated from the playoffs, including win this week, but he still got eliminated thanks to Brady's win.  TJ gets the rare luckiest and unluckiest team of the week in the same week.  The runner up was Trevor for allowing another high scorer of the week.

High Scorer of the Week: Following that excellent transition, Rob smashed all his competition this week by being 40 points higher than everyone in the league.

Low Scorer of the Week: Poor one out for Brandon for pulling the double ocho, and scoring less than 90 points this week. This poor week moves him below Jordan for lowest scoring team of the year.

Speaking of yearly records, as we are playing with an additional week this year, most records will be broken going forward.  In the interest of fairness, that means the record for highest scoring season (13 games) will be Ren's forever (1892.84).  I suppose we could track the first 13 weeks of the season going forward and compare those numbers, but I won't remember that going forward.  As of right now, the highest scoring team is at 1808.36, which is solid but 5 other of the highest scorers of the season have also broken 1800. 

Playoff Update

Kyle, Jordan, TJ, Trevor, Brandon: Eliminated

For the first time ever, an entire division has made the playoffs.  Congratulations to the North for time and again proving they are the best division in the league.

Matt and Rob: Matt clinches his division and the 6 seed with a win and a Rob loss, OR both get the same result (win or lose), but Matt outscores Rob by 114 points. That's not likely to happen, so Rob is win and in, Matt is win and Rob lose and in.

Skyler* and Tyler: Tyler clinches the 1 seed with a win and a Skyler loss OR both get the same result (win or lose), but Tyler outscores Skyler by 60 points.  This is a little more feasible than the Rob/Matt scenario, but still not likely. So if they end up with same result, Skyler likes get the 1 seed.  If Tyler wins and Skyler loses, Tyler gets the 1 seed.  No result gets Tyler lower than the 2 seed.

*=Skyler can still technically lose the North division if he loses to Brady, and Brady outscores him by 140, or if Chad wins and outscores Skyler (while Skyler loses) by 195, or if Tommy wins and outscores Skyler (while Skyler loses) by 255 points.  Most of those seem unlikely though.

Brady, Chad, Tommy: If Brady wins, he is the favorite for the 3 seed.  If he loses, the winner of Chad and Tommy will get the 3 seed. The loser of the Chad and Tommy game should get the 5 seed. Tommy and Chad could play this week and then turn around and play next week as well.

Game Previews

Skyler (1) vs Brady (3): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Brady has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. This is the early favorite for the weekly bonanza.

Kyle (9) vs TJ (8): Kyle has 1 player on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. TJ has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Tyler (2) vs Jordan (10): Tyler has 0 players on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Jordan has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Trevor (11) vs Matt (7): Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Matt has1 player on Thursday and 1 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Brandon (12) vs Rob (6): Brandon has 1 player on Thursday and 4 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Rob has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. This is looking like a good candidate for the nightly nail-biter and Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare

Tommy (5) vs Chad (4): Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Good luck to almost no one this week.  I have a lot of scenarios that I would like to see happen with playoff seeding, so wishing everyone the right amount of luck (good or bad) isn't great this week.

Week 12: We're In The Endgame Now

We're back to division rivalries, and the path to the playoffs is crystalizing for everyone.  After this week, some people have clinched, and others have already been eliminated.  Dread it, run from it, elimination arrives (except for the champion) all the same -- for some it's week 12, for the runner up, it's week 17.

Game Recaps

Skyler vs Tommy: Skyler is the highest scorer of the week, Tommy is the lowest scorer of the week, which means this was easily the blowout of the week. Skyler's best scorer was his DST, which was only 29 points.  I say only not because that's low for a defense (obviously not), but that for a lot of the high-scoring teams, you will see players with 30+ points.  There were 4 other teams this week that had players score 30+ points. Skyler had five players score 20+, including Dillon, Gibson, Deebo, Folk, and the aforementioned Miami DST. Tommy was let down by his 4 panthers players, in part because they sucked on their own, and because their suckage contributed to the Miami DST doing as well as they did. Tommy didn't have anyone score 20+ points, and CMC is now out for the year.

Jordan vs TJ: Stop me if you've heard this before "Stop me if you've heard this before 'Stop me if you've heard this before, but TJ had a lead going into Monday night but lost the game anyway'".  Hold up, I'm just getting word that Seattle sucks and and TJ won by double digits.  I wouldn't say the curse is broken, but it must be nice to occasionally break out of the loop. TJ's fantasy MVP, Cordarelle, came back from injury, and was the highest scorer of the game, and TJ's only player of 20+.  Jordan had two players over 20+ (Wentz and Diggs), but they didn't do enough to ocercome the poor play of the rest of the team.

Kyle vs Tyler: This was a great game, with some nail-biting and miracles/nightmares occuring -- however it doesn't officially win any of those awards as another match was closer. Kyle was able to come from behind on Monda night thanks to 22+ points from JD McKissic.  He ended up leaving the game injured, but not before he did enough to secure Kyle a huge upset, but a hollow victory as he is the only person to be mathematically 100% eliminated. Kyle's 3rd highest score of the week was made possible by 3 players going 20+ (including his kicker) in addition to Josh Allen going for 30+. Tyler ended up as the 4th leading scorer, and only had one player cross the 20 point threshhold.  Aaron Rodgers and his broken toe dropped 30 points in this match, but unfortunately, the rest of Tyler's team dropped the ball. This is only Tyler's 3rd loss of the year, and it takes him from solely in first place, to solely in first place.  Flowers and other donatcions can be sent to his house as a way to console him through this dark time.

Matt vs Rob: What a ride this game was.  Matt took an early lead, then Rob took it back, then Matt took it back again, and then Rob took it back during MNF on the back of Tyler Lockett.  Matt tried to take it back from on the final drive, but came up just 2 yards short. This gets the nail-biter of the night and the week, and is also the Monday Night Miracle/Nightmare. This game had two 20+ point scorers from Matt (Stafford and Mitchell), and one 20+ point scorer from Rob (Ekeler).  The only thing this game didn't have was offense, as neither team broke 100 points, and won the battle of ineptitude for the week.  But don't worry everyone, these two are tied at the top of their division at 5-7, and one of them will likely make the playoffs, but more on that later.

Chad vs Brady: Chad had former B EZ staple, Joe Mixon drop 32 on his former team.  However, that made up over 1/3 of this total points for the week, as Brady curbstomped Chad thanks to some of Chad's former players (44net and Keenan Allen [15]) going off when it mattered most. Chad had no other players go for 20+, while Brady had Prescott go for 29+ on Thanksgiving. Brady continues his hot streak and has won 7 games in a row. He was the second leading scorer with 154 points, and he only had 2 points combined from his K and TE.  Everyone else on his team hit 12+ points.  There are a few teams out there who hope his hot streak stops ASAP, but more on that later.

Brandon vs Trevor:  This was an ugly game from a player particiaption side.  The players affected by bye weeks, inactive before the game, injured during the game, or were on a pitch count from a previous include AJ Brown, Amari Cooper, Aaron Jones, Kadarius Toney, Darrell Henderson, DeAndre Swift, Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, Travis Kelce, and the Cardinals DST.  It won't surprise you that this was the second lowest scoring game of the week.  Trevor managed to get the win though thanks to 20+ point performances from Thielen and Higgins, while Brandon only had Herbert cross that mark.

Award Season

MVP: I am splitting this award between McKissic and Lockett since they got their teams the win this week.

LVP: DK Metcalf needed 2.5 points to bail Matt out.  He got 2.3.  Not sure if it's a career low, but it was definitely a season low.

Luckiest Team of the Week: Rob would have beaten 4 teams with his 93.14 points this week -- lucky for him, he faced off against one of them.

Unluckiest Team of the Week: Only 3 teams could have beat Tyler this week, and he played #3 on that list.

Highest Scoring Team of the Week: Skyler wins this for the 3rd time this year, and is the second person to win it in back to back weeks (Matt went back to back in weeks 7 and 8).

Lowest Scoring Team of the Week: Tommy becomes the second person to 'win' this award twice this season.  He is the first person to pull a 'double-double' and have 2 highest scoring weeks and 2 lowest scoring weeks.

Playoff Update

The only person to be truly 100% eliminated from the playoffs is Kyle, thanks to Brady's win.  Jordan, TJ, Rob, and Matt are all alive in the wild card race since they are at 5-7, and current low wild card team Brady is at 7-5 with two games to go -- if he loses out, and any of those teams win out, they could beat him out for the last spot if they win the tiebreaker. As soon as Brady wins, or any of those teams lose, they are eliminated.  

Everyone from the South is still alive to win the division, though Brandon and Trevor cannot make the playoffs as a wildcard team. Every game will be big from here on it in this division. If the underdogs win this week, they will all be 5-8 going into the last week of the season.

With a 3-way tie for first place in the North, and with 4th place only a game behind, the division race is open for everyone. The most intriguing situation would be for Chad and Brady to win this week, and then it would still be anyone's division going into the final week.

Tyler won the West already, but Jordan and TJ still have an outside shot at the division (see above).  This division has the least drama by far.

Game Previews

Skyler (2) vs Chad (3): Skyler has 1 player on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 3 players on bye, and is still missing a starting RB2. Chad has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. The winner of this will lead the division going into the final week.

TJ (8) vs Tyler (1): TJ has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player1 in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Tyler has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. 

Kyle (11) vs Jordan (9): Kyle has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Jordan has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Matt (7) vs Brandon (12): Matt has 0 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. Brandon has 2 players on Thursday and 3 players in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. 

Tommy (4) vs Brady (5): Tommy has 1 player on Thursday and 2 players in primetime. He has 2 players on bye. Brady has 2 players on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. This game is the most impactful on the 5-7 teams trying to make the playoffs.

Trevor (10) vs Rob (6): Trevor has 1 player on Thursday and 1 player in primetime. He has 1 player on bye. Rob has 0 players on Thursday and 0 players in primetime. He has 0 players on bye. 

Playoff Scenarios

Bye week: Tyler
In playoffs: Chad, Skyler, and Tommy.
Win and in: Brady
Out: Kyle
Out with a loss or Brady win: TJ and Jordan
Out with a loss: Trevor and Brandon
Not in, not out, can't clinch, can't be eliminated this week: Rob and Matt

Good luck to everyone but Chad this week.